by Shelley Lubben

If you are hurting, bitter or trapped in sin and YOU keep on failing, this message is for you.

Let's read together 1 Corinthians 13:1-8:

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.

Love knows no failures because love is a person, not a subject. God is love.
Love has NEVER EVER been defeated. There will be NO FAILURE in your life when you walk in love. The enemy has no defense against love.

If you want success in your life then it will require the operation of Love. The root to good fruit is love and love never fails. Satan can’t stop the results of any man or woman walking in love. Love is what enables everything else to work. Love is what empowers God’s principles to work in your life.

Every blessing, every biblical principle, every teaching you hear from your pastor all take a back seat because without love none of the principles or teachings will work. You can have your faith right, your principles right, pray and tithe and still without love none of it will work.

Love is not a principle, Love is a person.

But what if someone can quote half the bible, speak in tongues and prophesy and do all great miracles and healings? Listen, you can still do great miracles and even cast out demons but in the end Jesus said:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" Matthew 7:21-23

Only those who LOVE, know God.

1 John 4:7-8 also says:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

If you’re rude, you don’t know God. If you’re mean to your spouse you don’t know God. If you’re offended at every little thing, you don’t know God. If you’re hiding secret sins you don’t know God. God’s not rude and God’s not mean and God definitely doesn’t hide a porn addiction!

Knowing God is the RESULT of a person walking in love.

This is the reason love knows no failures because God has never failed.

If love then is what keeps you from failing, and it is, then you will need a biblical understanding of what love is. Let’s look at the law of love. A law is a set principle that works the same way every time. Jesus said:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35

If you don't love your neighbors, you are not a disciple of Jesus. You can’t treat others rudely and expect them to get saved.
The primary witness of Jesus Christ is how you treat others. How you treat others determines if people get saved. If you don't love others, many will perish because you did not show them love. You also will perish because only those who show love are true disciples of Jesus.

Love is the foundation to a believer’s life. It’s not an option, it’s a law!
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Galations 5:14

The law of love is: “You should love your neighbor as yourself”.
Whose your neighbor? Whoever you are near by.
How is the world going to know that you are a follower of Jesus Christ? Not by preaching, not by super spirituality, not by our long winded prayers, but by love.

If someone says, "I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" I John 4:20

Some of you come and lift your hands to worship God, yet as soon as church is over you treat others rudely. According to God’s Word, you’re a liar.

James 2:8 says:
"If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well." (Greek for the word well is “Kalos” which means IN A GOOD PLACE + RECOVER FULL WELL!)

Do you want to recover full well? Do you need God to do a miracle in your life?
God’s Word says: “Whatever we ask we receive because we are lovers, not haters.”
“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
“And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:18 and 22

If you walk in love, whatever you ask God, you receive from Him. Whatever you ask!!

Once you start loving others, LOVE IS FUN and addictive!
Loving others and following the law of love will bring unspeakable joy into your life.

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." John 15:9-12

But how can I do it?
God has not left it all up to us alone, He has given us the equipment to love.

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:5

With God ALL things are possible because love never fails. Practice loving others and watch God do the impossible in your life.

I love you!
Shelley